chicken-n-duck 101

[ducklover87]

Hello all,

My family and I had just embark on a journey of raising backyard chicken recently.  We are completely foreign to this as my husband and I were focusing on the hustle-n-bustle of building our careers for the past decade. Zippity-zip into the present and 4 children later, I now am a stay home mom; not what I had imagines myself years ago; I suddenly got an itch to turn back time  and thinking of running-off to the farm and wanting to spend more time with the kids and craving for a slower pace of life.  But reality checks in, so here I am getting on the wagon of backyard chicken after I had learned that one of my co-worker and her daughter were raising ducks in their very own backyard. I figure I might as well bring the farm to me(well, part of it anyway) if I can't go to it.  Surprisingly, my husband agree without reluctance, WHOOHOO!!!  So here I am burning the midnight oil and started doing research like mad scientist on raising chicken, building coop, etc..... I came across this site and here I am.  

I have several questions and would appreciate the responses from all the expert out there that'll help me out.  

We bought some chicks back in Nov. I wanted to get some ducks but not sure which one I should go with.  My purpose of having them are mainly for eggs.  Any suggestion of which breed I should get?  Also, I don't want the flighty ones if possible.  

We are using wood shaving on the floor with our chickens right now.  I've read that they can be house together with the ducks if I choose, do I need to change the wood shaving to straw?  Since ducks tend to get messy and I hate of having humidity built up in the house when they get mischievous with the water supply overnight.  

The chickens are residing in our garage right now and I discovered that they taking turn stay super hungry around the clock. How long before I can completely remove the feeder and waterer out of the chicken coop?  

How long before the chickens stop relying on  the heating lamp, so I can remove it? Not all the chicken are fully feather yet but thir rate is coming in nicely, I guess.:/

I probably will get my ducklings sometimes early spring next year. How do I introduce the ducklings into the group without turning my chickens into a maniac  since they probably have establish the hierarchy among themselves? If that's the case do I keep the ducklings separate from the chickens until they get to be decent size before I introduce the ducks to the chickens?

Will keeping the ducks and chickens together help mellow the chickens aggression behavior?

Thanks a bunch for taking time to view my thread.  

I don't have chickens but will help where I can. Honestly from what I've read on here it depends on the chickens and ducks themselves on whether or not they get along. Some people have no problem keeping the two together others do. Since your looking for eggs there is the Pekin, khaki Campbell's, and welsh harlequin. They lay the most. I happen to own all them breeds plus others. The Pekins are friendly and calm but louder than most other breeds I find. Females are loud anyway but Pekins more than others. The khaki Campbell, a very little brown duck. Now some of these ducks can fly. I have 3 and I find that they can get up off the ground a bit but they aren't going to fly away. All my ducks are used to people and friendly but my khakis can be kind of skittish at times. The Welsh Harlequin is also I tiny breed. They are so pretty though. They are pretty calm and quiet. I'd stick with using the shavings since they are more absorbent than hay is. Ducks poo is watery unlike a chickens so you will find you will end up with moldy hay quicker. I don't worry about making sure my ducklings always have water. For the first week I do my best but after that if they run out of water during the night it stays that way until I get up. Sometimes I hear them peeping because they are out of water and will give them some more but not unless it wakes me up. Just keep the ducklings and chickens separate until ducklings are big enough to defend themselves.

 

[teapot spot]

Ducklover87:

Awesome! I truly appreciate your feedback. My original plan was getting pekin and the second one was a toss up between WH and magpie.
Currently I have an area that I'm reserving to use strictly as a duck coop. It sits directly behind the shed and has existing roof, extending out from the shed, covering a patch of dirt. I'm struggling with the idea of the flooring for the area that I'll be using to create their coop. Since they are quite messy. I was thinking about throwing a mixture of peagravel and sand as the floor covering to control moisture as well as keeping the maintenance of their area simple. My only concern on this is that there's hardly any sun exposure to that area and I'm worry about the mold due to moisture from the humidity. Any suggestion on this would be great as I'm stuck and not sure if this will be detriment to the ducks' health.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Well I think mold growth is also dependent on temperature and moisture, other factors to consider besides sunlight.